Kempo Chris
12-04-2003, 11:26 AM
From www.adcombat.com
Interview: JEREMY HORN
Submitted by: Keith Mills
Posted On 12/04/2003
On December 6th Jeremy Horn makes his first King Of The Cage title defense when he takes on Dean Lister at Soboba Casino. Horn is the KOTC Light Heavyweight Champion while Dean is the Middleweight Champion. This show is a non-PPV show, with the match being for Horn's title.
Horn won the title back in May by defeating the Champion at that time, Vernon “Tiger” White by decision. In that fight White scored with kicks, while Jeremy scored with control and positioning. Both fighters were so good at defending the other’s strategy that neither did significant damage or came close to a submission. Overall this year Jeremy has gone a total of 7-1-1, a record this year alone that beats many of the fighters we see on pay-per-view shows. Jeremy’s one loss this year was by decision and was his only loss in over two years, coming to Renato Sobral in the finals of the IFC 8-man tournament in Denver in September.
KM: What are your thoughts on fighting Lister? JH: I know he is a really good grappler. It’s really all I have to go on.
KM: In the Abu Dhabi Submission Worlds he is the Absolute Division Champion but in MMA he hasn’t really faced somebody of your caliber yet. Does that mean anything to you? JH: No, not really. I’m sure he’s training hard, I’m sure he has some good people to train with.
KM: This is your first defense of your King Of The Cage belt. You mentioned before belts themselves don’t really mean anything to you but KOTC is high profile. Does that mean anything to you? JH: Nope. Losing the fight means something to me but that’s about it.
KM: This is at Light Heavyweight but you have been fighting recently at Middleweight? JH: I had a fight at Middleweight. That is where I want to fight mostly but the fights I keep getting offered are Light Heavyweight.
KM: The one Middleweight was in Extreme Challenge? JH: Yeah.
KM: So your most recent fight in London in Extreme Brawl… JH: Yeah, that was at 205.
KM: For those who haven’t seen it can you tell us about it? JH: He’s a tough guy and hard to submit but I took him down and pounded on him for three rounds. You never know judges; it went down as a draw. They were probably all 10-8 rounds. I pounded the **** out of him but he’s a tough guy and wouldn’t quit.
KM: This is for the Light Heavyweight belt but you are trying to establish yourself at Middleweight. Lister on the other hand is the Middleweight Champion and is trying to establish himself at Light Heavyweight. Would you be fighting for the Middleweight belt in KOTC later on? JH: Yeah, probably.
KM: Your last fight was in London. Anything lined up for January? JH: Might be three times in January. There is a local promoter here that does smaller boxing stuff and I might fight on one of his cards here. I might fight in TKO the day before or day after UFC, I forget which. I might do that; it depends on how the schedules work out with that. I’d be fighting David Loiseau.
KM: Would that be defending your World Light Heavyweight belt or at 185? JH: That would be at 185.
KM: Would you give up the TKO belt? JH: No.
KM: So you have the Light Heavyweight belts in King Of The Cage, 2Hot2Handle, TKO…do you know how many belts you have? JH: I have about twelve. I forget all the names.
KM: Isn’t it February you are defending your 2Hot2Handle belt? JH: That is still in negotiations. They want me to fight Alistair Overeem but they are really not offering much money. We’ll see how that goes.
KM: There are rumors about a rematch between you and Babalu in Brazil in March. JH: That is kind of what we are looking at. That is pretty tentative. We haven’t heard a whole lot from the people that want to do that so we’ll see how that goes.
KM: We’ve talked several times about how I think you deserve to be back in the UFC and here you are I believe the most international fighter; London, Rotterdam, Brazil, California, Japan…what are your thoughts on being the most international fighter? JH: I never really thought about it before you mentioned it. I’d always rather travel as little as possible. Traveling so much I spend so much time away from home, I don’t like it.
KM: So this isn’t a conscious effort or strategy to spread your name to foreign fans… JH: No, not at all. I’m taking the fights that are offered.
KM: You moved to Salt Lake City. JH: Yes.
KM: So you get that high elevation training 24/7. Have you noticed any difference? JH: Oh, yeah. When I first came out here was before the tournament in Denver and I noticed a huge difference. It’s only about a thousand feet lower than Denver while everybody else in the tournament was almost at sea level pretty much. I was out here about a month or six weeks before that fight. I noticed a big difference.
KM: I’ve heard fighters talk about taking 2-3 weeks to go to high elevation like Big Bear being a favorite of the California fighters. Since you are living at high elevation now are you noticing even better conditioning or does the conditioning increase level off after 2-3 weeks? JH: I’m not really sure about how all that works. My understanding is by going up in high elevation there is less oxygen and your body learns to survive and work on less oxygen. Living gets your body more used to it. I don’t think it’s that big a difference just coming up for a month or so but now it’s something I don’t have to think about, to worry about.
KM: It used to be you were training mainly at Miletich Martial Arts. Do you go back there or is it a different training regimen? JH: I still train the same way. We still do a lot of boxing, a lot of grappling, stuff like that. I get a lot of those guys coming out here to train with me and I go back home to train with them a lot. It’s still pretty much the same group.
KM: I hear you are training around Walt Bayless’ place now. JH: Yeah.
KM: How should I phrase it, you are Team Miletich, Team Extreme, fighting out of Walt Bayless Combat Jiu-Jitsu… JH: I got a lot of friends at that gym so that is where I train but I don’t know how you would phrase it. It’s more like a partnership than them training me.
KM: Maybe I should continue to just say “Team Extreme”. JH: I don’t know, it’s kind of blurry.
KM: You are still getting along with the Team Miletich people… JH: Oh, absolutely.
KM: It seems that whole split between Monte and Pat was blown out of proportion. JH: It was, yeah.
KM: Things are pretty much like they used to be? JH: Yeah.
KM: It seems like it’s just another day at the office for you, the KOTC belt is nothing to get worked up for you. JH: No, not really. It’s just another fight. That doesn’t mean it’s any less important but it’s just not anything special just because of all that extra stuff. It’s just a fight.
KM: Sponsors to thank? JH: Always Tapout. Fairtex. I know James Wong is going to be helping me out but Tapout has always been supportive of me.
Interview: JEREMY HORN
Submitted by: Keith Mills
Posted On 12/04/2003
On December 6th Jeremy Horn makes his first King Of The Cage title defense when he takes on Dean Lister at Soboba Casino. Horn is the KOTC Light Heavyweight Champion while Dean is the Middleweight Champion. This show is a non-PPV show, with the match being for Horn's title.
Horn won the title back in May by defeating the Champion at that time, Vernon “Tiger” White by decision. In that fight White scored with kicks, while Jeremy scored with control and positioning. Both fighters were so good at defending the other’s strategy that neither did significant damage or came close to a submission. Overall this year Jeremy has gone a total of 7-1-1, a record this year alone that beats many of the fighters we see on pay-per-view shows. Jeremy’s one loss this year was by decision and was his only loss in over two years, coming to Renato Sobral in the finals of the IFC 8-man tournament in Denver in September.
KM: What are your thoughts on fighting Lister? JH: I know he is a really good grappler. It’s really all I have to go on.
KM: In the Abu Dhabi Submission Worlds he is the Absolute Division Champion but in MMA he hasn’t really faced somebody of your caliber yet. Does that mean anything to you? JH: No, not really. I’m sure he’s training hard, I’m sure he has some good people to train with.
KM: This is your first defense of your King Of The Cage belt. You mentioned before belts themselves don’t really mean anything to you but KOTC is high profile. Does that mean anything to you? JH: Nope. Losing the fight means something to me but that’s about it.
KM: This is at Light Heavyweight but you have been fighting recently at Middleweight? JH: I had a fight at Middleweight. That is where I want to fight mostly but the fights I keep getting offered are Light Heavyweight.
KM: The one Middleweight was in Extreme Challenge? JH: Yeah.
KM: So your most recent fight in London in Extreme Brawl… JH: Yeah, that was at 205.
KM: For those who haven’t seen it can you tell us about it? JH: He’s a tough guy and hard to submit but I took him down and pounded on him for three rounds. You never know judges; it went down as a draw. They were probably all 10-8 rounds. I pounded the **** out of him but he’s a tough guy and wouldn’t quit.
KM: This is for the Light Heavyweight belt but you are trying to establish yourself at Middleweight. Lister on the other hand is the Middleweight Champion and is trying to establish himself at Light Heavyweight. Would you be fighting for the Middleweight belt in KOTC later on? JH: Yeah, probably.
KM: Your last fight was in London. Anything lined up for January? JH: Might be three times in January. There is a local promoter here that does smaller boxing stuff and I might fight on one of his cards here. I might fight in TKO the day before or day after UFC, I forget which. I might do that; it depends on how the schedules work out with that. I’d be fighting David Loiseau.
KM: Would that be defending your World Light Heavyweight belt or at 185? JH: That would be at 185.
KM: Would you give up the TKO belt? JH: No.
KM: So you have the Light Heavyweight belts in King Of The Cage, 2Hot2Handle, TKO…do you know how many belts you have? JH: I have about twelve. I forget all the names.
KM: Isn’t it February you are defending your 2Hot2Handle belt? JH: That is still in negotiations. They want me to fight Alistair Overeem but they are really not offering much money. We’ll see how that goes.
KM: There are rumors about a rematch between you and Babalu in Brazil in March. JH: That is kind of what we are looking at. That is pretty tentative. We haven’t heard a whole lot from the people that want to do that so we’ll see how that goes.
KM: We’ve talked several times about how I think you deserve to be back in the UFC and here you are I believe the most international fighter; London, Rotterdam, Brazil, California, Japan…what are your thoughts on being the most international fighter? JH: I never really thought about it before you mentioned it. I’d always rather travel as little as possible. Traveling so much I spend so much time away from home, I don’t like it.
KM: So this isn’t a conscious effort or strategy to spread your name to foreign fans… JH: No, not at all. I’m taking the fights that are offered.
KM: You moved to Salt Lake City. JH: Yes.
KM: So you get that high elevation training 24/7. Have you noticed any difference? JH: Oh, yeah. When I first came out here was before the tournament in Denver and I noticed a huge difference. It’s only about a thousand feet lower than Denver while everybody else in the tournament was almost at sea level pretty much. I was out here about a month or six weeks before that fight. I noticed a big difference.
KM: I’ve heard fighters talk about taking 2-3 weeks to go to high elevation like Big Bear being a favorite of the California fighters. Since you are living at high elevation now are you noticing even better conditioning or does the conditioning increase level off after 2-3 weeks? JH: I’m not really sure about how all that works. My understanding is by going up in high elevation there is less oxygen and your body learns to survive and work on less oxygen. Living gets your body more used to it. I don’t think it’s that big a difference just coming up for a month or so but now it’s something I don’t have to think about, to worry about.
KM: It used to be you were training mainly at Miletich Martial Arts. Do you go back there or is it a different training regimen? JH: I still train the same way. We still do a lot of boxing, a lot of grappling, stuff like that. I get a lot of those guys coming out here to train with me and I go back home to train with them a lot. It’s still pretty much the same group.
KM: I hear you are training around Walt Bayless’ place now. JH: Yeah.
KM: How should I phrase it, you are Team Miletich, Team Extreme, fighting out of Walt Bayless Combat Jiu-Jitsu… JH: I got a lot of friends at that gym so that is where I train but I don’t know how you would phrase it. It’s more like a partnership than them training me.
KM: Maybe I should continue to just say “Team Extreme”. JH: I don’t know, it’s kind of blurry.
KM: You are still getting along with the Team Miletich people… JH: Oh, absolutely.
KM: It seems that whole split between Monte and Pat was blown out of proportion. JH: It was, yeah.
KM: Things are pretty much like they used to be? JH: Yeah.
KM: It seems like it’s just another day at the office for you, the KOTC belt is nothing to get worked up for you. JH: No, not really. It’s just another fight. That doesn’t mean it’s any less important but it’s just not anything special just because of all that extra stuff. It’s just a fight.
KM: Sponsors to thank? JH: Always Tapout. Fairtex. I know James Wong is going to be helping me out but Tapout has always been supportive of me.